Will Apple silicon laptops be useable past the day Apple stops supporting them? (Image source: Notebookcheck/Unsplash – edited)
Apple tends to support its products for six or seven years. For the Apple silicon-based MacBook Air and Mac mini released in H2 2020, this means that almost half of their useful life is now behind them, and with no Windows compatibility, it remains to be seen if they will be of any use past H2 2026.
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Apple’s 2006 MacBook, with its 32-bit Core Duo T2400 CPU and that glossy plastic case, can still be used as a Windows 10 PC – albeit a slow one – in 2023. Intel hardware-based Macs were not perfect but the owners knew that they would not be left with a useless chunk of metal on their hands the moment Apple pulled the trigger and stopped releasing software updates for their systems.
To this day, Apple’s 2006 MacBook can be used to do mundane things – thanks to its x86 CPU
Apple’s still-recent decision to wave goodbye to Intel and embrace ARM technology was mostly taken cheerfully. “Apple M1 humbles Intel and AMD” – that’s what we had to say about the first Apple silicon laptop, the 13-inch MacBook Air, back in 2020. M1-series and M2-series chips are indeed amazing in several regards, the first one being their unparalleled performance-per-Watt ratio.
Those first M1-based systems were released nearly a thousand days ago. We know for a fact that Apple drops support for a sizeable batch of its products every year, with most getting something like six or seven years of support overall; worst-case scenario, this means that the 2020 Mac mini and MacBook Air will be cut out from updates in H2 2026. While that’s still a long time away, it is hard not to wonder exactly how useable such systems will be once support for them ends.
Give it a year, and the built-in Safari browser will become unable to load certain websites. Give it two years, and the OS will be full of holes that no one will ever patch. Neither Microsoft nor Apple are willing to come to terms regarding official Windows support for Apple silicon, despite the fact that Windows 11 runs just fine on devices like the Raspberry Pi 4. There are a couple of projects aiming to bring Linux support to Apple silicon but these are far away from maturity, and the fact is many users just do not want to have anything to do with Linux for multiple reasons including bugs, lack of compatibility with the software they use, and so on.
The M1-based MacBook Air will celebrate its third birthday this November
It remains to be seen if Apple silicon-based products will indeed become unuseable once Apple stops supporting them. Computer sales have been stalling or falling for years now due to the lack of innovation and the global market being close to its saturation point, and falling sales mean falling revenues. Considering that, increasing numbers of companies will be tempted to cease life support for their older products as soon as possible and do their best to push “the latest and greatest”. For those actually willing to reduce e-waste and use electronics for dozens of years, life isn’t getting easier any time soon.
Sergey Tarasov – Senior Tech Writer – 2280 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2010
I love reading stuff. I also love dealing with different electronic devices, be that a remotely controlled toy or a new MacBook. When I am not at work, you can try searching for me somewhere in the mountains of Altai Republic, Russia.
Sergey Tarasov, 2023-07-17 (Update: 2023-07-17)
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